(Not about the year of) Linux on the desktop

This is just about my distribution and desktop environment preferences when it comes to Linux.

There is one main scenario I am interested in, with 2 flavours: constrained resources for both virtual machine and bare metal (= low-end/old hardware).

For the virtual machine flavour I use Virtual Box. The base VM config is 2 CPU cores, 2GB RAM, 32GB storage - these originate in the times when netbooks with those specs actually existed and were sold as new (with Windows 10, which was barely usable on the netbook's launch date and became more painful to use with each feature update).

For the bare metal flavour, there's no base config (obviously) - I just deal with whatever hardware comes my way. For the low-end hardware think Intel Atom-class CPUs (the newer Celeron N and Pentium N but could be an actual Atom) with 4GB of RAM (but could be as little as 1GB of non-upgradeable RAM on some Atom netbooks) and SSD storage (maybe eMMC in some cases and even HDD in some Atom netbooks). For the old hardware, think Intel Core2 Duo and AMD Athlon 64 X2 - with 2GB of RAM ('cause second hand DDR2/DDR3 is really cheap) and HDD storage - that's roughly 15 years in the past.

The lightest DE I use is LXDE on Debian via custom net install using mini.iso (and more recently I've tried Fedora Everything for the same purpose with good results, but Fedora moves too fast). My goal is to keep PCs relevant as much as possible and newer kernels and GUI stacks make low-end/old hardware obsolete faster. So, I tend to favour LTS-class releases because of this. But for a developer VM I think Fedora LXDE custom net install using Fedora Everything is pretty good (and also in Fedora there's no proper GUI package manager if you're not on GNOME or KDE so one needs to deal with dnf in command line for package management - which is fairly easy for a developer but not for an end-user).

While there are other DEs lighter than LXDE, I consider that for the average user LXDE is the lowest I can go and still have good usability (think Win 9x features).

LXDE/Debian is the only one to use on bare metal if you have less than 2GB of RAM or if the CPU is Intel Atom. It uses 200-300 MBs of RAM booted to the LXDE desktop. Starting Firefox and LibreOffice on top still leaves some room if the machine only has 1GB of RAM. The performance killer: the web-browser. The absolute performance killer: multimedia in the web-browser.

The next DE I use is XFCE. Traditionally I've used Xubuntu distribution for it but after Canonical pulled the Enable Ubuntu Pro trick in the Update Manager I've started using Linux Mint Xfce and kept Xubuntu as a 2nd option. Think about XFCE as in "Win XP features". Consumes 600-700 MBs of RAM booted to the desktop. Plenty of room left in 2GB of RAM after starting web-browser and office programs. Same considerations about the performance killer.

I've used Xubuntu 22.04 to revive the IT lab of a primary school in 2022 (20 PCs with Celeron CPUs from ~ 2012, 4GB RAM, HDD storage). Works just great, kids could practice in Scratch, Codeblocks, LibreOffice and various on-line tools.

Also installed Xubuntu 22.04 on a ThinkPad 11e 1st gen (Celeron N CPU, 4GB RAM, replaced HDD with small and cheap SSD). Here the CPU is a little slow but the user is a senior person and they are getting along just fine.

Later in the beginning of 2024 I've installed an IT lab of a primary school using Linux Mint Xfce 21.3. This time computers were way better, 30 AIOs with Intel Core i3 gen. 9, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD. Just flying.

But Linux Mint Xfce 21.3 works well on some Dell Inspiron 545 (Core2 Duo, from 2008-2009) and Optiplex 780 (Pentium Dual Core, from 2012-2013). The Inspiron is on DDR2 while the Optiplex is on DDR3 - 4GB RAM each. Storage is HDD for both. Added some discrete video cards (GeForce 9500 GT, Radeon HD 4670) and they can decode HD videos with (almost) no frame drops. That's 10 to 15 years old hardware so the result is pretty good (as multimedia in the web-browser is not killing the performance).

Linux Mint Xfce 21.3 is also working great on a laptop with Pentium N CPU, 4GB RAM and 128GB eMMC - that one came with Windows 11 but was completely unusable. Initially installed with Ubuntu 22.04 (which worked great) but the desktop paradigm change was not clicking with the user so moved to something with a more "traditional" desktop paradigm (= Windows-like).

The next DE I use is KDE. It was not on my list for some time, until recently (but it was 20 years ago). Again, due to the Ubuntu Enable Ubuntu Pro in Update Manager, I looked for an alternative to Ubuntu itself (= GNOME) and after experimenting with various "heavier" DEs in Debian, I've settled to KDE.

KDE moves the RAM consumption to 800-900 MBs when booted to desktop (all RAM levels I mentioned so far are for VMs, on bare metal it goes generally up due to drivers/firmware/other stuff I don't know). Think about it as in "Win 7/Win 8 with Classic Shell/Win 10 with Open Shell features".

We're already starting to move into hardware territory where Windows also works so don't have too many use cases for KDE/Debian (for now - preparing for Oct 2025). Aside from VM, it's just my setup of choice for a laptop with AMD Athlon Silver 3050u CPU, 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD. KDE/Debian flies (Ubuntu 22.04 was also flying) while Windows 10 worked ok but only if it was not performing updates (when the CPU spiked to 100% continuous usage).

Finally, because I already mentioned it a couple of times, I also use GNOME in the Ubuntu implementation, This is the heaviest on RAM consumption (1.1 GB booted to desktop).

GNOME is the only exception from the base VM config, instead of 2GB RAM it gets 4GB RAM. On bare metal GNOME/Ubuntu has a place on those PCs with Pentium N Silver/Gold or Athlon Silver/Gold with 4GB RAM and eMMC/SSD. That's hardware where Windows is marginally usable (and only when not performing updates) but GNOME/Ubuntu is flying.

I hope that after Oct 2025 (= Win 10 EOL) GNOME/Ubuntu will have a place on all those PCs that have very capable hardware but for whatever reason they are no good for Win 11.

Based on experience with new users, GNOME's problem is the different paradigm for the desktop. I'm ok with it but some people (Windows refugees) are not. For these people Linux Mint Cinnamon might be the better option. I haven't mentioned it so far because Cinnamon and I don't click (it's ok, I can use it just fine but if I can choose I'll choose something else - LXDE/XFCE/KDE, even GNOME).

Also important, my preference towards the DEB package format side of the Linux world has to do with one important piece of software, which is Synaptic - THE package manager!

I've written this from GNOME/Ubuntu 24.04 on a Lenovo T490, which can run Win 11 fine (and has it licensed) - but still ended up being installed with Ubuntu 24.04 :)

That's all folks!